Tokyo-based smartphone ad-optimizer Nobot announced on Friday they had fundraised approximately USD1.3M from Japan’s largest VC firm JAFCO and Nissay Capital[J] who is an investment arm of Japan’s largest life insurance company. Nobot was founded in April 2009, and has introduced a smartphone ad-optimization service called Ad-Maker. They’re currently distributing 100 million impressions per month,… Continue reading Smartphone Ad-optimizer Nobot Fundraises USD1.3M From JAFCO And Nissay Capital
Month: October 2010
Twitter Japan Releases Email Notification
Twitter Japan is finally getting up to speed on how people communicate with their mobile phones in Japan. Contrary to what people think, SMS does exist in Japan. It’s just not used. It never had a real chance, having been buried by e-mail, which became the standard texting communication channel between users on their keitai.… Continue reading Twitter Japan Releases Email Notification
Social Apps Provider Istpika Gets $2.5 Million From DeNA-Backed IncubateFund
I wonder in what shape the Japanese venture capital industry (and entrepreneur scene) would be without social games. Yesterday, TechCrunch Japan reported about Tokyo-based social apps provider gumi getting a “multi-million dollar” sum from GREE, which counts 21 million members in its mobile gaming network. And today, Japan- and Australia-based Istpika says it received $2.5… Continue reading Social Apps Provider Istpika Gets $2.5 Million From DeNA-Backed IncubateFund
Live: Six Japanese Tech Start-ups Present At SF NewTech Japan Night
As Shunichi Arai introduced here last month, San Francisco-based digital consulting agency btrax, Inc. organizes an event featuring six Japanese tech start-ups today. Without being at the venue in San Francisco, you’ll be able to watch it live on Ustream from all around the world. The live starts today at 11:30am JST, 7:30pm PDT and… Continue reading Live: Six Japanese Tech Start-ups Present At SF NewTech Japan Night
NHK Website Celebrates 15th Anniversary With Biz Stone And Jun Murai Interviews
NHK Online, Japan’s public broadcasting organization makes a special website about its 15 years internet activities. The NHK Online History, a Flash contents, is quite interesting as it covers Japanese and the world Internet news and trend for last 20 years. Here is the video version in English. The site also has “special interviews” of… Continue reading NHK Website Celebrates 15th Anniversary With Biz Stone And Jun Murai Interviews
Will DeNA Crack The Japanese Code For International Expansion?
DeNA, the company behind one of the big three social networking sites in Japan, Mobage-Town (20m users in Japan), cannot be clearer on its current strategy. It’s called international expansion. Everyone is abuzz of today’s acquisition of Ngmoco, an US iPhone game developer for a staggering USD 400m. The big tide in social gaming is… Continue reading Will DeNA Crack The Japanese Code For International Expansion?
Facebook Sudden Surge In Japan By Notable Web Users
Japan is known as one of the most difficult countries for Facebook. However, there has been sudden Facebook buzz happening in Japanese websphere now for about a week. Tokyo-based social media consultant company Looops Communications counted that there were over 11.7% Japanese Facebook users increase observed in 11 days last week. According to them, the… Continue reading Facebook Sudden Surge In Japan By Notable Web Users
Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Akihabara, Tokyo
On Saturday at Ustream Studio Akiba[J], a livecast facility in an Internet cafe in Akihabara, we had a readers meet-up in Tokyo for the first time in approx. 2.5 years. The meet-up started with Asiajin co-founder Akky’s presentation about our current state. It described Asiajin contributors are always shortstaffed to cover what are happening in… Continue reading Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Akihabara, Tokyo
Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Singapore
I was visiting Singapore in late-September for attending Accelerate 2010 and meeting with great techpreneurs. Thanks to Bernard Leong from Chalkboard, a Singapore-based start-up providing retail promotion solutions for several smartphone platforms, and Justin Lee from Tech 65, a Singapore-based gadget-focused tech blog, we could have a readers meet-up at the country’s geek hub, Hackerspace.SG,… Continue reading Event Wrap-up: Asiajin Readers Meet-up in Singapore
September 2010 Japan IT Links (Part 3)
Continued from (Part 2). Last part of September news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. KDDI au’s First Android Sale Suspended By A Bug On Mail Application Osaka District Public Prosecutors Investigative Team Alleged To Manipulate Timestamp Of A File On Floppy Disk,… Continue reading September 2010 Japan IT Links (Part 3)